The present invention relates to an article holding device, and especially, it relates to an article holding device which holds a hook provided in a rear seat frame of a vehicle with respect to a panel (floor).
As a conventional article holding device, for example, an article holding device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. H8-210335 which was proposed by the assignee of the present invention. FIGS. 14 through 15(B) show an article holding device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. H8-210335, and as shown in the figures, the article holding device is formed of an outer casing 102 and a core 104, which are molded by synthetic resin.
The outer casing 102 has an opened upper surface, and an inside thereof is hollow. In the outer casing 102, a flange 106 expanding upwardly is integrally provided at an upper rim of an outer peripheral surface of a side wall thereof, and an engaging flange 108 expanding downwardly is integrally provided from an intermediate portion of the outer peripheral surface of the side wall of the outer casing 102. Window holes 110 are bored between the flanges 106 and 108, and engaging claws 112 which are elastically deformable are disposed on the outer peripheral surface of the side wall located below the engaging flange 108. When the outer casing 102 is inserted into a mounting hole h in a panel P, the engaging flange 108 covers a front surface at a peripheral rim of the mounting hole h, and at the same time, the panel P is sandwiched between the engaging flange 108 and the engaging claw 112, so that the outer casing 102 is fixed at this condition.
The core 104 inserted into a hollow portion of the outer casing 102 has a substantially cylindrical shape. In the core 104, an upper portion of an outer peripheral surface of a side wall thereof is integrally provided with engaging projections 114 engaging the window holes 110 of the outer casing 102, and an inner peripheral surface of the side wall of the core 104 is integrally provided with a pair of elastic engaging portions 116 facing each other. The elastic engaging portions 116 have the same thickness as that of the side wall, and are projected inwardly such that upper and lower ends thereof are connected to the side wall. At the upper end portions of the elastic engaging portions 116, expanded portions 118 projecting to have a substantially triangle section are disposed to face each other. Also, at the left and right positions on the inner peripheral surface of the side wall with respect to the respective elastic engaging portions 116, positioning portions 120 for positioning an inserted hook F of a rear seat frame are integrally disposed such that the positioning portions 120 respectively face each other, and the positioning portions 120 are continued to legs 122 on a lower surface of the core 104, respectively.
In order to hold the hook F by the article holding device 100, the core 104 is assembled into the outer casing 102 in a direction shown in the figure, and after attaching the article holding device 100 to the panel P, the hook F is pushed into the core 104 to thereby hold the hook F. At this time, the respective expanded portions 118 of the elastic engaging portions 116 are pressed by the hook F such that both elastic engaging portions 116 of the core 104 are outwardly bent and deformed as shown in FIG. 15(A). From this condition, when the hook F is further pushed to pass through a space between the expanded portions 118, both elastic engaging portions 116 are returned to the original condition by the elastic force, and the hook F is engaged with the expanded portions 118 to be held thereat as shown in FIG. 15(B).
In the article holding device as described above, it will be a problem if the hook held by the article holding device is easily released or disengaged. Therefore, a force for extracting the hook (a force for holding the hook) is adequately set in accordance with the purpose. In the article holding device 100 for the seat as described above, in view of the safety, a high extracting force is required, and the desired high extracting force is obtained by increasing the rigidity of the elastic engaging portion 116 such that the elastic engaging portion 116 is difficult to be bent and deformed.
In accordance therewith, however, an inserting force for inserting the hook F into the article holding device 100 (the core 104) is increased, resulting in a problem that a workability at the time of assembling the hook F is deteriorated. Especially, in a mass production step of vehicles in which the operations of the assembling described above are continuously carried out, since burdens to workers or operators become heavy, an improvement in the hook inserting force has been strongly desired.
The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing, and an object of the invention is to provide an article holding device in which a workability in assembling the hook can be improved by decreasing only the inserting force without decreasing a holding force for the hook in engaging the hook disposed in an article.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.
To achieve the aforementioned object, a first aspect of the invention provides an article holding device for holding an article to a member to be attached by engaging with a hook provided in the article. The article holding device according to the first aspect of the invention is formed of an outer casing, which is attached to a mounting hole provided in the member to be attached and includes a hollow inside and an inner wall surface provided with a first engaging portion; and a core having a main body, a second engaging portion, and elastic engaging portions. In the core of the article holding device, the main body is inserted into the outer casing and includes a hollow inside for receiving the hook, an inner wall surface, an outer wall surface and a bottom wall capable of abutting against the inserted hook. The second engaging portion is provided on the outer wall surface of the main body, and engaged with the first engaging portion in an assembled condition that the main body is inserted to a predetermined position of the outer casing.
The elastic engaging portions are disposed integrally at side walls of the main body to be elastically deformed, and include protruding portions protruding toward an inner side than the inner wall surface of the main body. The elastic engaging portions are engaged with the hook inserted into the core. The protruding portions have rear surfaces abutting against the inner wall surface of the outer casing in the assembled condition.
According to the first aspect of the invention, the article holding device is formed of the outer casing attached to the mounting hole in the member to be attached and having the hollow inside, and the core, which is inserted into the outer casing to be assembled therewith and includes the hollow inside engaging the hook.
In the core, the elastically deformable elastic engaging portions are integrally provided at the side wall of the main body, and the inserted hook is engaged with the protruding portions of the elastic engaging portions which are protruded toward an inner side than the inner wall surface of the main body. Namely, when the hook is inserted into the core (main body), the protruding portions are pushed by the hook to elastically bend and deform the elastic engaging portions, and when the hook is further pushed therein to pass through the protruding portions, the protruding portions are returned inwardly by the elastic force of the elastic engaging portions to thereby hold the hook.
After the hook is engaged with and caught at the core, the hook is pushed such that the core is inserted into the outer casing. Thus, the hook abuts against the bottom wall of the outer casing, and the core (main body) is inserted into the outer casing. When the core is inserted into the outer casing at the predetermined position, the second engaging portion provided at the main body is engaged with the first engaging portion provided at the outer casing to be assembled therewith. In this assembled condition, the rear surfaces of the protruding portions of the elastic engaging portions contact the inner wall surface of the outer casing, to thereby prevent the movement (elastic deformation) of displacing the protruding portions outwardly. Therefore, even if a large extracting force is applied to the hook, the hook is strongly held since the protruding portions can not be moved or retreated outwardly, so that the hook is not easily disengaged from the article holding device.
As described above, in the condition that the hook in the article is assembled with the article holding device, the elastic engaging portions of the core reinforced by the outer casing securely hold the hook by the protruding portions. In case the hook is inserted into the main body of the core such that the hook is engaged with the protruding portions before the core is finally assembled with the outer casing, the elastic engaging portions can be freely deformed elastically, and rigidity thereof (elastic force) can be decreased if necessary. Accordingly, as compared with the conventional structure in which the hook is engaged and stopped only by the rigidity of the elastic engaging portions, in the present invention, the rigidity of the elastic engaging portions is set sufficiently low so as to decrease the inserting force at the time of engaging the hook, so that the workability at the time of assembling the hook can be improved.
According to a second aspect of the invention, in the article holding device as described above, the outer casing further includes a third engaging portion and concave step portions. The third engaging portion is provided on the inner wall surface of the outer casing at a position in a forward side in a direction of inserting the main body relative to the first engaging portion, and the third engaging portion engages the second engaging portion at a temporary insertion position in which the main body is not fully inserted into the outer casing to become the assembled condition. When an inserting force larger than an inserting force for engaging the hook with the protruding portions is applied to the bottom wall of the main body, the third engaging portion is disengaged from the second engaging portion. The concave step portions are provided on the inner wall surface of the outer casing corresponding to the elastic engaging portions of the main body at the temporary insertion position, and the concave step portions do not prevent an elastic deformation movement of the elastic engaging portion by engaging the hook.
In the article holding device according to the second aspect of the invention, the third engaging portion is disposed on the inner wall surface of the outer casing. The third engaging portion is disposed at the forward side of the inserting direction of the core (main body) relative to the first engaging portion. When the third engaging portion is engaged with the second engaging portion provided in the main body at the temporary inserted position that the core is not fully inserted to become the assembled condition, the core is fixed at the temporary attached condition.
When the hook is inserted into the core in this engaging condition or temporary attached condition, the elastic engaging portions where the protruding portions are pressed by the hook start to bend and deform outwardly. Here, since the concave step portions are provided on the inner wall surface of the outer casing at the positions corresponding to the elastic engaging portions, the elastic engaging portions can be bent and deformed outwardly, so that the hook can be engaged and stopped at the protruding portions of the elastic engaging portions as described above. When the hook is further pushed, that is, when the inserting force larger than the inserting force for allowing the hook to engage the protruding portions is applied, the hook abuts against the bottom wall of the main body of the core, so that the inserting force is applied to the core, resulting in releasing the engaging condition between the second engaging portion and the third engaging portion. After releasing this engaging condition, the core is further inserted into the outer casing to be located at the predetermined position, and the second engaging portion is engaged with the first engaging portion as described above, so that the hook is securely held by the article holding device.
Since the core can be temporarily attached to the outer casing as described above, the setting operation for attaching the article holding device to the member to be attached, or the operation for assembling the hook can be facilitated. Also, it is easy to handle the outer casing and the core in the temporary attached condition as compared with the case in which the outer casing and the core are respectively individually handled, and the entire device can be made compact. Therefore, a space required at the time of physical distribution or stock can be reduced.
According to a third aspect of the invention, in the article holding device as described above, the elastic engaging portion is formed of an elastic member having one end connected to the side wall of the main body along a direction of engaging the hook and the other end in a free condition, and the protruding portion is disposed at the other end of the elastic member.
In the third aspect of the invention, the elastic engaging portion constitutes the elastic member. The elastic member is in a cantilever form in which the one end is connected to the side wall of the main body of the core to be formed integrally therewith and the other end provided with the protruding portion is in the free condition, and the elastic member is disposed along the direction of engaging or attaching the hook. Therefore, the elastic member can be easily bent and deformed in response to the insertion of the hook into the core, and by this simple structure, the decrease in the force for inserting the hook can be achieved.
A fourth aspect of the invention provides an article holding device for holding an article to a member to be attached by engaging a hook provided in the article, and the article holding device is formed of an outer casing which is attached to a mounting hole provided in the member to be attached and includes a hollow inside and an inner wall surface provided with fourth engaging portions in the vicinity of an opening of the outer casing; and a core having a pair of side walls, a bottom wall, a pair of protruding portions, fifth engaging portions, and sixth engaging portions. In the core, the pair of side walls is inserted into the outer casing from the opening, and has outer surfaces abutting against the inner wall surface of the outer casing when the side walls are inserted into the outer casing so as to have a predetermined interval therebetween. The bottom wall is connected to the respective distal end portions of the side walls in an inserting direction to be integral therewith, and is elastically deformable to allow the side walls to move freely from an expanded condition to a condition having the predetermined interval between the side walls. The pair of protruding portions faces each other and is disposed on respective inner wall surfaces of the side walls. The pair of protruding portions gets closer to each other and engages the hook when the pair of the side walls is moved from the expanded condition to the condition having the predetermined interval therebetween.
The fifth engaging portions are disposed at distal end sides of the outer surfaces of the side walls, and are engaged with the fourth engaging portions in a condition that the side walls are expanded for predetermined angles. The fifth engaging portions are disengaged from the fourth engaging portions when an inserting force for inserting the side walls expanded for the predetermined angles is applied to the bottom wall. The sixth engaging portions are disposed at rear end sides of the outer wall surfaces of the side walls and engaged with the fourth engaging portions in an assembled condition that the side walls are inserted into the outer casing to have the predetermined interval therebetween.
In the article holding device according to the fourth aspect of the invention, the fourth engaging portions, which are provided on the inner wall surfaces of the outer casing in the vicinity of an inlet of the opening of the outer casing, are engaged with the fifth engaging portions provided on the distal end sides of the outer wall surfaces of the side walls forming a part of the core, to thereby temporarily attach the core to the outer casing. At this time, the pair of the side walls is expanded larger (for the predetermined angles) than the opening of the outer casing by the elastic force of the bottom wall, which is elastically deformable and connected to the respective distal end portions of the side walls, so that the interval or space is formed between the side walls to thereby enable the engagement with the hook.
When the hook is disposed between the side walls and pushed thereinto, the hook abuts against the bottom wall, and by the inserting force thereof, the fifth engaging portions are disengaged from the fourth engaging portions, so that the core (the pair of the side walls) is inserted into the outer casing. Accordingly, the interval between the pair of the side walls becomes narrow by the bending deformation of the bottom wall, and the outer wall surface of the side walls are allowed to abut against the inner wall surfaces of the outer casing to have the predetermined interval between the side walls. By this closing operation, the protruding portions facing each other and respectively disposed on the inner wall surfaces of the side walls get closer to each other, to thereby hold the hook. The core inserted into the outer casing and catching the hook at the protruding portions is assembled when the sixth engaging portions disposed at the rear end sides of the outer wall surfaces of the side walls are engaged with the fourth engaging portions of the outer casing.
Accordingly, the hook is held by the article holding device attached to the member to be attached, and also in this article holding device, since the outer casing prevents the pair of the side walls of the core from expanding, even if the extracting force is applied to the hook, the hook is not easily disengaged. Also, since the force required for attaching the hook to the core is only the inserting force for inserting the core in the temporary attached condition into the outer casing, the hook can be easily inserted into the core.